Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Who wants a better world?

It's an amazing wreck. Our chopper was overhead, but I was sent out to Boyle Heights yesterday to shoot ground footage, get soundbites from witnesses and officials, and meet up with a crew for liveshots on this story.

We do the best we can, but chances are I'm never going to know anything more about this story.

A vehicle was shot at by people in another vehicle. Gang related? Maybe. Okay, probably, but we don't know.

You do know that every one of the little numbered cards in the street are shell casings from the shooting. That's a lot of shots.

Our world doesn't start getting better until we all start placing a higher value on human life.

This happened right across the street from a park where innocent people were playing. If anybody saw anything, they weren't willing to talk to us about it.

If they knew the people involved, I hope they at least talked to the police about it.

By the way, the body of the victim is still in the car.

I couldn't see it from where I was working behind the crime scene tape. Knowing that it was there, but not in view added a surreal quality to the whole incident. Another life taken.

The victim might have been a good person or (not entirely unresonable to believe) the victim might have done similar or worse to others.

The victim might have friends or family who are going to go out and try to balance the scales. I hope they don't. I hope this is the last shooting ever and people realize how terrible it is to take a life.